With the rising popularity of free lancing and platforms catering for this, has anyone here experienced managing free lance (remote/virtual) project members such as developers, encoders, etc.? How was schedule adherence? How was quality? Would you recommend this as a good option at least for low risk projects (projects that do not require tight security)? How was your general experience?Saving Changes...

There are pros and cons to using contract staff just as there are for full time staff. The benefits are that you usually get more focus and availability from contract staff than full timers who will have normal administrative activities in addition to their project responsibilities. You also can benefit from deep technical skills in specific areas as well as a breadth of experience which comes from working with different clients.

The down sides are higher cost, low organizational awareness and internal relationships, and the potential loss of valuable knowledge if you don't do a good job of managing knowledge transfer.

I've had excellent contractors as team members on my projects and some bad ones. As with any team member, you need to do as much due diligence as possible up front before making a hiring decision balancing technical expertise with interpersonal and other skills.

Kiron

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1 reply by Joseph Pangan

Oct 05, 2017 8:05 AM

Joseph Pangan

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Hi Kiron,

Thank you for your response. I might have not stated my question clearly but I was asking about part-timers who may have no fix schedule, and who may even have multiple engagements. I am thinking of exploring this option instead of hiring full time contractors, with the intention to save, to minimize idle times and maximize productivity. Just in time project human resource. Am I making sense? Haha.

There are pros and cons to using contract staff just as there are for full time staff. The benefits are that you usually get more focus and availability from contract staff than full timers who will have normal administrative activities in addition to their project responsibilities. You also can benefit from deep technical skills in specific areas as well as a breadth of experience which comes from working with different clients.

The down sides are higher cost, low organizational awareness and internal relationships, and the potential loss of valuable knowledge if you don't do a good job of managing knowledge transfer.

I've had excellent contractors as team members on my projects and some bad ones. As with any team member, you need to do as much due diligence as possible up front before making a hiring decision balancing technical expertise with interpersonal and other skills.

Kiron

Hi Kiron,

Thank you for your response. I might have not stated my question clearly but I was asking about part-timers who may have no fix schedule, and who may even have multiple engagements. I am thinking of exploring this option instead of hiring full time contractors, with the intention to save, to minimize idle times and maximize productivity. Just in time project human resource. Am I making sense? Haha.Saving Changes...

Multi-Project Tasking in combination with part time availability generates negative impacts on the team productivity. Without knowing the specific project background I cannot give a final recommendation, but at least I recommend you, to try to really get it minimized to the absolut minimum. Think about options to reduce the reasons for idle times in the project.

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1 reply by Joseph Pangan

Oct 05, 2017 10:41 AM

Joseph Pangan

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I agree. Try and limit at a minimum.

Resource idle times usually occur due to dependencies of some activities to other activities (Finish to Start) where one has to wait until the activity of another resource is completed and so on.

Multi-Project Tasking in combination with part time availability generates negative impacts on the team productivity. Without knowing the specific project background I cannot give a final recommendation, but at least I recommend you, to try to really get it minimized to the absolut minimum. Think about options to reduce the reasons for idle times in the project.

I agree. Try and limit at a minimum.

Resource idle times usually occur due to dependencies of some activities to other activities (Finish to Start) where one has to wait until the activity of another resource is completed and so on.

Thanks for the suggestion, I think it is worth a shot.Saving Changes...

I am in line with Stéphane. In my case I have managed this type of environments from years ago mainly when I worked in a hugh company related to services in the field of applications/technolgy/security/information. In fact, it is difficult to me remembering an initiative where I am not managing this type of schemas. Then only point I have to take into account is national regulations about all related to labor regulations. About the rest of the components is has not difference for me.

I am in line with Stéphane. In my case I have managed this type of environments from years ago mainly when I worked in a hugh company related to services in the field of applications/technolgy/security/information. In fact, it is difficult to me remembering an initiative where I am not managing this type of schemas. Then only point I have to take into account is national regulations about all related to labor regulations. About the rest of the components is has not difference for me.